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CHICAGO
ou can never dip your toes in the same river twice, era. “It was eye-opening to discover Saul Bass, Paul Rand, to paraphrase Heraclitus. In Chicago, the cultural the Eameses—JDK Design was like the art school I could waters run deep. At the crossroads of the nation, in never afford.”
NEW CURRENTS IN
DY ESIGN BY TOM BIEDERBECK
60
Illustration Annual 2016
the intersection of the arts—visual design, architecture, fine art, music, performance—Chicago is always transforming itself, weaving the crosscurrents of the new into its mutable creative culture... a flow that’s never the same, but always reflects what’s gone before.
Chicago designers carry their traditions with a purpose while pursuing their passions fearlessly—whether absorbing the thinking of Bauhaus émigrés, like László Moholy-Nagy, who moved to the city in the 1930s; earning a seat at a corporate table in the new modernist era; or embracing the city’s musical and graffiti cultures in succeeding decades. Today, the intrepid travelers in the currents of Chicago’s design culture navigate the waters with nerve and purpose.
Street style: Cody Hudson
“Cody Hudson is one of those artists who traverse the disciplines of design, music and art,” says fellow designer Jeremiah Chiu. That’s a start. Hudson has emerged from the skateboarding, punk rock and graffiti communities and moved into a wide-ranging practice with big-time clients like Facebook, Scion, Converse and Nike.
Restaurants, public murals, sneakers, snowboards, sculptures and paintings—no medium seems to escape Hudson’s restless hand, which he applies with of-the-moment and analog sensibilities. He grew up in Wisconsin and says, “I did a little of everything, from bagging groceries at Piggly Wiggly to studying graphic arts and printing technology for a couple of years. I didn’t realize it was graphic design.”
Early in his career, Hudson worked at Jager Di Paola Kemp Design (JDK), a Vermont design firm that did much of the work for Burton Snowboards. It was during his time at JDK that Hudson was drawn to American modernists of the prior
Hudson has been working in Chicago for almost two decades now, but those impressions from his early design heritage have stuck with him. “I like envisioning myself working back in the ’60s. It’s less about visually imitating the artists of that time than it is a comfort factor for me—how they actually did that work, using cut paper, markers and pencils. My work has a handmade feel,” he says. “If you have a choice, it makes a difference to be able to do the work ‘off the computer.’ But I love the cleanliness of working in the grid. Helvetica is still one of my favorite typefaces.”
Hudson’s sculptures are one expression of this unique approach. They begin as paper cuttings, which he then scans into the computer, cuts from steel and welds together. Aside from the computer scan, the process could have come from the 1920s.
The celebrated restaurant Longman & Eagle is another example. A watering hole and dining destination in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, whose front window and server T-shirts proclaim “EAT, SLEEP, WHISKEY” (there are rooms to rent upstairs), Longman & Eagle got its first Michelin star in 2010. The project development studio that developed the restaurant concept, Land and Sea Dept., is now thriving (Hudson, from the beginning, was a part of the studio that has branded or conceived of five other restaurants, among other pursuits).
Hudson describes the restaurant as “a scruffy clubhouse” that has become something completely different. “It’s open to everyone, but you can get a good meal there, maybe hear some good music you wouldn’t find at a fancy place.” And the Longman & Eagle’s logo, which Hudson designed, represents both the environs and Hudson’s approach: it’s
Right: “Using the ten-foot-long, four-seater car as a canvas, I worked with Scion to transform the iQ into a unique piece of design.” Cody Hudson, designer; Beyond Marketing Group LLC, ad agency; Scion, client.
“In July 2015, I was asked by the Jaunt, a website that combines art and travel, to spend a week in Mexico City with the sole purpose of being inspired. Once I got back to the studio in Chicago, I started working on very minimal, graphic cut-paper sketches of things pulled from the hundreds of photos I shot during my trip. The Jaunt is a project by Jeroen Smeets, who acts as the curator and travel planner.” Cody Hudson, designer; The Jaunt, client.
“Printed glass table design for the 2014 Facebook F8 developer conference. The theme of the conference was ‘Let’s Build Together.’” Cody Hudson, designer; Facebook, creative direction/client.